Jason

Jason Becker’s musicality and technique transcended almost all of his peers. With jaw-dropping chops (arguably one of the greatest sweep-pickers to have existed, not to mention his vicious picking), heartbreaking phrasing and extremely keen sense equally for the melodic and absurd, Jason Becker was one of the greatest players to have emerged in the early 90’s. Graduating from the his heady partnership with Marty Friedman (“here was this 17 year old kid who could play like a motherfucker”) to the pomp of David Lee Roth’s band via his instrumental tour de force Perpetual Burn, Becker was destined for greatness when he was set back by a diagnosis of ALS, the same form of Motor Neurone Disease that Stephen Hawking also suffers from.

Unperturbed, Becker still managed to release follow ups to Perpetual Burn, first with the part-live, part-programmed Perspective, and the collection of demos that forms The Blackberry Jams. In addition, he released a guitar instructional DVD on Hot Licks, and has had the tribute albums Warmth In the Wilderness parts I and II dedicated in his honour, featuring close friends such as Friedman and Gary Becker, to luminaries such as Steve Vai, Ron Thal and Paul Gilbert.